Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
Legend has it that on the spot where the Corpus Christi Basilica now stands, a stolen monstrance was found in a marsh, with mysterious lights burning above it day and night — and the king promised to build a church there. The facts are jus…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
The little church in the corner of Kraków's Main Market Square is older than the square itself — by roughly a century. St Adalbert's Church is one of the oldest stone churches in Poland, with walls dating back to the 11th century. That is…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
The Old Synagogue in Kraków, on Szeroka Street in the historic Jewish district of Kazimierz ("ka-ZHEE-myesh"), is the oldest surviving synagogue building in Poland and one of the most important monuments of Jewish architecture in Europe. F…
Hiking & tourist trails
Podzamcze
The red-marked Trail of the Eagles' Nests links Kraków with Częstochowa over 163.9 km, winding between the limestone outcrops of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, also known as the Polish Jura. Along the way it passes medieval castles and wat…
Zoos
Warszawa
During the war, people hid in the empty cages and the director's villa at Warsaw Zoo. Jan and Antonina Żabiński saved several hundred Jews this way, were honoured as Righteous Among the Nations, and their story is told in the film "The Zoo…
Landmarks
Warszawa
The University of Warsaw Library (BUW, pronounced "boov") in the riverside Powiśle district is one of the city's most striking modern buildings, and its rooftop garden is free, open to everyone and one of the largest roof gardens in Europe…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Into this mound went soil from every First World War battlefield where Poles fought, and since 1981 soil from Second World War battlefields has also rested at its foot — hence its nickname, the "Grave of Graves". Józef Piłsudski Mound, on…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
On a small limestone hill above the Vistula, a few hundred metres from Wawel, Bishop Stanislaus of Szczepanów was killed in 1079, according to tradition. The Baroque Basilica of St Michael the Archangel and St Stanislaus, known simply as S…
Old towns & squares
Wrocław
Laid out in the 13th century on a flat rise above the Oder, beside a trade route running across Europe from east to west, this square measures roughly 204 by 170 metres. Wrocław's Market Square covers 3.64 hectares, making it one of the la…
Landmarks
Kraków
The facade bears the motto "Kraków to the national art", and on the stage behind it, on 16 March 1901, Wyspiański's play "The Wedding" had its world premiere — one of the defining moments of Polish culture. The Juliusz Słowacki Theatre, op…
Old towns & squares
Łódź
Piotrkowska Street in Łódź (say pyot-ROOF-ska, and the city is woodge) is the main street of one of Poland's largest cities and one of the longest high streets in Europe: a dead-straight 4.2 km avenue lined with the mansions, banks and hot…
Castles
gmina Niegowa
As recently as the 1990s, all that remained of Bobolice Castle was a ruin on a limestone crag. Today King Casimir the Great's fortress once again has a roof, a tower and battlements, the result of a ten-year private reconstruction that ope…
Lakes
Żywiec
Beneath the surface of Lake Żywiec lie the remains of Zarzecze, Tresna, Zadziele and Stary Żywiec — villages that disappeared when the Soła river was dammed in the 1960s. The reservoir covers about 10 km², is 6.6 km long and up to 26.8 m d…
Churches & monasteries
Świdnica
The tower of Świdnica Cathedral is 101.21 m high — the tallest church tower in the whole of Silesia and the sixth tallest in Poland. Beneath it stands one of the largest churches in Lower Silesia: a Gothic basilica that the Jesuits filled…
Churches & monasteries
Wrocław
In the mid-15th century this church's tower, spire included, stood 130.5 m tall — the highest in Silesia and among the tallest structures in the world at the time. Today's tower, rebuilt after a series of fires, is 91.46 m high and the thi…
Churches & monasteries
Warszawa
At the top of the facade on Krakowskie Przedmieście gleams a copper globe wrapped in a serpent and crowned with a gilded host — since the 18th century Varsovians have called it the "bania karmelicka", roughly "the Carmelite bulb". The Chur…
Churches & monasteries
Sandomierz
This bare brick church on St James's Hill looks austere, but it is one of the oldest churches in Poland built entirely of brick. Dominican friars began building St James the Apostle's Church around 1226, combining Romanesque forms with som…
Nature
Kraków
In 1917, in the middle of the First World War, the Kraków Municipal Savings Bank bought the woods on the city's western hills and handed them over to the city as a people's park. That is how Wolski Forest came about — 419 hectares of beech…
Churches & monasteries
Bohoniki
The date this mosque was built was only discovered in 2005, when the year 1873 was found written on the entrance door frame during a major renovation. The wooden mosque at Bohoniki, a village near Sokółka in north-eastern Poland, is one of…
Castles
Poznań
The Imperial Castle in Poznań (Zamek Cesarski, roughly "ZAH-mek tseh-SAR-skee") is a massive neo-Romanesque palace built in 1905–1910 for Kaiser Wilhelm II — one of the youngest castles in Europe and one of the most surprising buildings in…
Castles
Grodziec
Around 1800 Count Hans Heinrich VI von Hochberg restored part of the ruins at Grodziec, filled the rooms with memorabilia and opened them to visitors — at the time the castle was regarded as the first historic monument in Europe adapted sp…
Castles
Rudno
In 1655, with the Swedes invading, Grand Marshal Jerzy Lubomirski hid the Polish crown treasury in the Spiš region — and deliberately spread a rumour that it had been taken to Tenczyn. The Swedes fell for it: they besieged the castle, mass…
Castles
Brzeg
Brzeg Castle (say "BZHEG"), nicknamed "the Silesian Wawel", is one of the finest Renaissance residences in Central Europe, set on the Oder River about 45 km southeast of Wrocław. It is famous for its richly carved gatehouse lined with stat…
Castles
Szczecin
For centuries the Griffin dynasty, the dukes of Pomerania, held court on this hill above the Oder; later Swedish governors ruled from here, and the future Empress Catherine the Great grew up within its walls. The Castle of the Pomeranian D…